Too often our Finnish posters are left on the sidelines, but they have news too!

Yet climate scientists and locals warn the region is under threat like never before from powerful global political and economic forces keen to exploit its plentiful natural resources and open up lucrative Arctic shipping routes to Asia. The Sami – who have inhabited these harsh northern latitudes since the last ice age and are the only indigenous people in the EU – fear that proposals to build a €2.9bn railway to the EU’s first Arctic port, in Norway, will provide mining and logging companies with the infrastructure they need to venture ever further into the wilder, untouched parts of Lapland.

The three municipalities of northern Lapland promote the project to global investors as a way of developing the region’s ore fields and timber industry, as well as exploiting oil and gas reserves in the Barents Sea, which contain 5‑13% of the world’s untapped oil and 20-30% of the world’s untapped gas. They claim it could one day carry millions of tonnes of goods to Europe from container ships taking advantage of melting sea ice in the Northeast Passage.

Although government officials working on the proposed route have this month raised concerns about the scheme’s finances, Finland’s transport minister, Anne Berner, insists it remains a strategic goal for the Nordic country. “Most railway projects are not financially valid or solid in their initial plans. The Arctic rail is still a part of the strategic long-term plan of connecting Finland to other parts of the world, including central Europe,” she says.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...build-railroad